El profesional providenciano Harold Bush Howard, residente en la ciudad de Londres, Inglaterra, envió una carta al director de The Economist, prestigioso semanario económico y de actualidad; en donde fija su posición frente al polémico fallo de la Corte Internacional de Justicia (CIJ) de La Haya. A continuación, el contenido de la misiva.
Dear Sir,
Colombia smarts from the loss of territorial waters
I am writing this letter as a native of the island of Providencia (and a Colombian national) whose family has lived on the island for the last two centuries.
Your article fails to take into account some serious issues underlying the ICJ’s recent decision and, contrary to what it asserted, there are strong reasons for Colombia to ignore or to oppose the ruling. After all, it wouldn’t the first time one of the Court’s ruling is ignored or opposed.
The archipelago of San Andrés and Providencia, along with the Corn Islands just off the Nicaraguan coast, were assumed by Colombia from the Spanish empire in 1821. Yet in 1928 by treaty Colombia ceded the Corn Islands to Nicaragua and both countries agreed that the more or less equidistant meridian 82 would be their border. This was accepted by both countries until 1980 when Nicaragua began to be ruled by the leftist Sandinista government, which ignored the 1928 treaty and demanded the whole archipelago of San Andrés.
It seems extraordinary that, in its decision, the ICJ ignored the fact that for 52 years Nicaragua accepted Colombia’s sovereignty over an area which has been used for fishing by the inhabitants of the San Andrés archipelago for over 300 years, and so well before Nicaragua existed as a country.
The ICJ is therefore sending the message to all countries that unilaterally rescinding a bilateral treaty is appropriate.
The ICJ’s decision not only ignored some serious historical facts, that no doubt create legal significance, but also left the English-speaking fishermen of the San Andrés archipelago without their livelihoods and an important source of the food security of the local community. The ruling cuts off the islands from the rich fish banks of Quitasueno and Serrana and the other traditional fishing areas towards the west of the archipelago. We have been asking ourselves where is the equitable and just solution when we cannot fish in the waters that have been ours for over 300 years.
President Santos should ignore the decision, and seek to negotiate a treaty with Nicaragua.
He owes this to the English speaking local population who feel that we have had a very unfair deal from Spanish-speaking bureaucrats in Bogotá over the 202 years since sovereignty of Colombia was accepted.
Not only our culture and language have been seriously eroded by Bogotá’s insistence on a model of development for the fragile islands that facilitates mass immigration from mainland Spanish-speaking Colombians, but we feel that Colombia has been, and continues to be, incapable of defending the island's vital interests.
Your faithfully,
Harold Bush-Howard, PhD
London, UK